The original page that we had providing a discussion of the operating system war as it related to our district has been moved and stored here.
In our opinion this war is pretty much over as technology in general has been changing so fast and merging so completely (between software as well as hardware), but we do feel that a short explanation of our decision to standardize on Apple technology for the bulk of our client and server computing is appropriate.
Educational Purpose
When a school district purchases computers they generally have a choice between two major operating systems; Microsoft Windows (2000, XP, NT or Vista) and Apple's OS X. There are other operating systems available but Microsoft and Apple are the major players. Regardless of the decision made by the district there is an inevitable discussion regarding the selected operating system vs the other operating system. There are several points we need to keep in mind as we look at the goals of our initiative if we want to effectively evaluate the correct technology to put into the hands of our staff and students.
This Learning Initiative is about teaching and learning. It's about engaging the 21st century learner in their own language. Today's learners are not bound to any particular technology or company. They use what works and what satisfies their needs for learning, playing, living and sharing. A learning environment such as this is one where the teacher and the student have anytime, anywhere access to digital content, educational software and digital authoring tools.
We do not work to prepare students to use specific tools after their K-12 education, we work to prepare them to be critical thinkers, problem solvers and dynamic learners regardless of the environment they find themselves in. Some will continue their general education, some will focus on specific trade skills and some will go into the work force immediately. What tools they will be using at that point, which is anywhere from 1 to 6 years in the future, is nearly impossible to anticipate. Technology is changing so fast and systems are blending together so much that we cannot reliably guess what will exist in the next few years. This trend in change has been increasing exponentially over the past few decades and shows no sign of slowing down but instead appears to be speeding up.
In a modern classroom we do not focus on teaching specific technology, applications or operating systems because they change too often to be of use in the long run. It is best to teach students how to learn to use any tool they are presented with or expected to interact with. We use technology in the classroom to meet our primary goals of educating students in reading, writing, mathematics, science, history, language, music, health, visual and performing arts, social sciences, and how to be a successful member of our society. We need technology that allows us to continue educating students and which facilitates that education. If the requirement for selecting technology is not to prepare students to use a specific tool that they will operate after their educational journey with us then the criteria for selecting an operating system, and technology in general, changes. If the criteria changes, what does it change to?
Cost
Although we don't like to focus on funding as a major factor related to how we educate students it is, unfortunately, a daily hurdle in the public education sector. Due to this we have to look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of all our purchasing decisions. This covers everything the technology department purchases; from the core switches and routers to the physical devices that our users handle every day. The selected systems must have a long life, be reliable and dependable, require less money to support (i.e. fewer staff, less time, quicker and easier updates and maintenance, etc...) through out the life of the product. The more staff time spent on fixing problems the higher the TCO. The TCO is not a calculation of the cost of the initial purchase spread over the life of the equipment, but rather a more complex formula that includes the financial investment made on the equipment in comparison to the usefulness of that equipment to the organization.
Features
Technology is purchased to perform certain tasks. It must be able to complete those tasks and possibly be expected to adjust and adapt to new requirements without extensive updates or changes. If the tool being used cannot do the task it's the wrong tool. This does not mean that the tool must do the task in our preconceived way, perhaps there is a better or easier way and we need to adapt to take advantage of that new process. We are working to educate students and many of our goals are not tied to specific methods. To improve writing there are hundreds of 'tools' that can be used in the classroom and every teacher will have their favorites. When technology is used in the classroom to improve writing we are not introducing a single tool, we are introducing hundreds of tools in one device. Perhaps students are blogging, journaling, creating story boards with Comic Life, writing scripts for a movie or podcast, creating public relations documents such as pamphlets and brochures, writing short stories and essays for peer review and comments, or any of hundreds of other possible writing projects. The technology used should be able to do all of these things and more without incurring additional cost to the district and without getting in the way of the educational process.
Support
It would be nice to have technology that never fails or has problems, and we've certainly had some technology that has been very close to that ultimate goal, but at some point it's likely that a problem will arise with any given piece of technology. When that happens we try to handle it internally with our own staff and knowledge. FMS does quite well with this and we're proud of our overall system reliability and up-time. However, there will be times when we can't resolve an issue ourselves and we look to our technology vendors for additional support to correct any problems and provide solutions. Support is an important factor when considering technology purchases and we don't like to risk large technology implementations to a vendor who has not proven their support to us. This is one reason we don't normally purchase equipment from discount vendors or invest in consumer equipment. We select our vendors based on support, features and cost to avoid being caught with technology that has failed to perform and no place to go for a resolution.
Conclusion
The decision to standardize on a particular technology is not unique to any organization. A single vendor for a particular technology decreases the overall support and costs while simultaneously providing a more reliable implementation by guaranteeing that the pieces will all work together in concert. We've selected each of our vendors, whether it is Cisco, Microsoft, Apple, HP or Epson based on the three factors above. The selection of Apple as our vendor for almost all of our server and client computing equipment is based on their ability to provide us with an overall lower TOC, a reliable and flexible system with tools that meet the instructional and business needs of our staff and students, as well as an excellent support structure when we need it. We know that the software and hardware will work together correctly because it all comes from the same vendor who has developed it to work together. This is unique to Apple's computer technology. We will continue to make our technology decisions based on these important factors and we fully expect the specific technology that we implement to change over time. Our purpose, however, is to educate students in more than an application or an operating system. We are responsible for creating the creative and dynamic employees and business owners that our society needs. We will continue to work towards that goal and technology will be one of the tools we use to meet it.
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